Freshman Maira Carreau crossed the finish line at the Sun Devil Triathlon Classic Saturday afternoon and made University of Denver program history as the first individual racer to win a Triathlon National Championship.
“It’s pretty amazing. Coming into the race I knew I could do it,” Carreau said. “The whole season I was going for that title … I knew I could do it.”
Carreau posted a total time of 1:03:22.6 in the race. She posted the 14th-highest swim time, the 12th-highest bike time, and thrived in the run section with the third-highest time out of the 208 racer field.
DU came into the race as the fourth-ranked triathlon team in the country and finished fourth as a team in the national championships.
Arizona State was the team champion of the competition and Queens University was the second-place team finisher. San Francisco tied Denver for total team points but won the tiebreaker for third place as their sixth-highest finisher had a better result than DU’s.
Freshman Alex Campbell was the second-highest finisher for the Crimson and Gold, finishing 16th place overall in her first career national championship race. Campbell had the sixth-best bike time in the entire competition and enjoyed learning in her debut.
“It definitely hurt a lot on the run. I think I pushed myself beyond that line on the bike and didn’t have much left on the run, but it’s all a learning experience,” Campbell said.
The success of the DU freshman class was apparent all season as Campbell and Carreau combined for three race wins and two other top-ten finishes. Campbell was reflective of the great success she has had this season.
“I had a lot of fun,” she said. “I love having a team, I love traveling and training with this team and it is so much less nerve-wracking to go to these races when you have a group of girls who are going through the same thing and are there to support you.”
Junior Clara Normand was the third-highest finisher for DU and finished in 20th place in the national championships. It was the second consecutive season Normand claimed an All-American spot and she worked hard on the bike portion of the race to get back to the front packs of the race.
“Biking is definitely my strength,” she said. “I try to position myself intelligently on the course to work smarter, not harder.”
Sophomore Elizabeth Harita finished in 30th place, junior Olivia Ebenstein finished in 34th, junior Avarie Faulkner finished in 46th place, and graduate student Maren York finished in 52nd place to cap off her debut season with Denver Triathlon.
Carreau capped off her extraordinary debut season with two wins and another podium finish in her three races she competed in this season. But, somehow, to Carreau, it wasn’t quite a perfect debut season.
“Maybe not perfect, but I would say close to it,” she said.
